Japanese Prime Minister admits need for international aid at Fukushima Daiichi

“We are wide open to receive the most advanced knowledge from overseas to contain the problem,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in his English speech at an international science forum in western Japan on Sunday. “My country needs your knowledge and expertise,” he said.

Despite the fact that over the weekend, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe admitted that Japan was in need of international expertise to handle the crisis at Fukushima Daiichi, the continuous string of failures, leaks, and mishaps at the crippled nuclear power complex is doing everything but reassuring the international community of nuclear safety. Officials have acknowledged that the ground water has been contaminated with radioactive leaks which been leaking into the Pacific since soon after meltdowns following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Over the weekend, human error caused another halt of cooling water injected into the destroyed Unit 1 reactor and knocked out systems designed to decontaminate radioactive gases in Unit 1 and Unit 2.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan is mulling a plan which would divide Tokyo Electric into two entities, one which would continue efforts to decommission the Fukushima Daiichi reactors, the other would handle the rest of the utility’s operations.

If TEPCO goes bankrupt under current laws, administrators would be able to use its assets to pay institutional investors before compensating Fukushima residents or paying subcontracted workers at Fukushima Daiichi. Also efforts to deal with the accumulating contaminated water on-site would unnecessarily be delayed.